< Previous page

Glenn Burkins, The Observer deputy managing editor who oversaw the project, said his paper did get a lot of response, mostly positive. Negative reaction, he said, came from people unsympathetic to immigrants working in this country illegally.

I thought that was one of the salient points of the series -- companies are profiting from mistreating vulnerable peoples who are lured to this country to perform our least desirable labor and who can't complain about working conditions. Whose fault is it that so many illegal immigrants worked at House of Raeford?

This project was an impressive journalistic effort. Burkins said The Observer assigned three reporters virtually full time to the story for two years, and a fourth joined in the final months of writing and editing. The series appeared not only in The N&O and The Observer, but also in the Columbia (S.C.) State, also owned by McClatchy. Portions are being translated into Spanish for re-publication in the Hispanic press.

The collaboration extended the reach of the series from The Observer's 260,000 readers to nearly half a million readers of all three publications in both Carolinas. It likely will have impact, in terms of regulation of the industry. It caused me to think twice when I opened a package of sliced turkey to make a sandwich.

I asked Burkins, did he find it strange to see the Observer's series published in the paper that used to be his blood rival? "This is where our industry is going," he said. "We are sister newspapers now, and when we have work -- or you have work -- that is of interest to the entire region, I don't think it's strange at all."

< Previous page